‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Recap – ‘Grounded’

Written by Shae Rufe

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the season three premiere of ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’. To revisit the season two finale, click here.
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​Season 3 of Star Trek: Lower Decks has finally arrived, and this episode really hit it off in true Lower Decks fashion. With the trial of Captain Freeman fast approaching, Mariner is desperate to prove her mother’s innocence. To do that, she’s going to need the help of Boimler, Tendi, and Rutherford. Of course, if she’d just listen to her father and trust Starfleet, this would all be over smoothly and quickly.
 
However, Mariner doesn’t do just sitting and waiting very well, so she does the exact opposite. Boimler is the first person she goes to. His family oddly owns a vineyard, but not for wine, rather raisins. Why? Nobody really knows. Boimler actually has a log of the Captain’s Logs, word for word, and that could be enough to help free Captain Freeman. First, they just have to find the Cerritos. Enter Rutherford and Tendi, who’ve totally been off sightseeing, Rutherford does know where the Cerritos is, it’s just getting there that’s the problem.
 
When they can’t beam there, they go to Bozeman, Montana and highjack a Phoenix theme park shuttle ride to get to the Cerritos. Mariner is more than a little determined, which might explain why she explodes at Boimler when his logs also contain his own personal flare, making them a bit sillier than Mariner was originally led to believe. Boimler doesn’t care how embarrassing they are, he just wants to help free their Captain and clear her of any wrongdoing.

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Captain Freeman is being charged with the bombing of Pakled Planet’s capital city. The truth is, these four would do anything for their Captain. Mariner just feels beyond helpless over the whole thing, so she’s going to be the reckless Ensign we all know and love. Eventually, she agrees to go with Boimler, Tendi, and Rutherford back to Earth and give the Logs to the court anyway. Or does she?
 
Tricking Tendi, Boimler, and Rutherford into a shuttle, she sets it to return to Earth on auto pilot and plans to steal the Cerritos and fly to the Klingon home world and confront them in search of evidence. Thankfully, Boimler makes the Cerritos ‘home’ and the shuttle crash lands back into the ship. The three fight Mariner in hopes of stopping her, before it’s too late, and thankfully Rutherford stops the ship and takes control. That’s when Dry Dock security shows up. Tendi scrambles to save them with the flimsy excuse of observing space jellyfish like creatures, that are currently migrating by Earth and the ship. The security team doesn’t quite believe them, until Captain Freeman shows up and vouches for them.
 
Freeman was cleared of all charges as Starfleet had undertaken their own secret investigation into the Pakled bombing. Turns out the Pakled’s just wanted Starfleet to relocate their entire species to a better, more resourceful, planet. Freeman dismisses the others and talks to Mariner privately. This is her last chance to stay in Starfleet, and it’s now under the watchful eye of Ransom. Surely nothing bad is going to come of that… right?

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